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GRACE AND GRATITUDE
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With the Stars All Around: January 15 - 21
I wish you the peace of sleep, your breath a canoe that carries you toward the next moment without any need for you to touch the oars....

danmcneil14
Jan 15, 20231 min read
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Doorway: January 8 - 14
While the mind often dwells in the past or worries about the future, the body is always in the present. The breath connects us to the...

danmcneil14
Jan 8, 20231 min read
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Breath: January 1 - 7
Everything breathes. I breathe. Trees breathe. The ocean breathes. The earth breathes. Often I sync up my thoughts with the ebb and flow...

danmcneil14
Jan 4, 20231 min read
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January
January is a time for beginnings. We mark the beginning of our lives with a breath. I learned to meditate by paying attention to my...

danmcneil14
Dec 11, 20221 min read
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Welcome!
A mindfulness practice is like working out at the gym except you don't need to leave your house, you don't need weights or a rowing...

danmcneil14
Dec 10, 20221 min read
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Day 30 - Repeat
It's been a month. Thanks for hanging in with me. I hope you've found ways to begin or deepen a regular meditation practice. I've...

danmcneil14
Sep 30, 20221 min read
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Day 29 - Life as Meditation
As our 30 days together winds down, maybe you're realizing mindfulness is much more than a practice, it is a way of being, an inner...

danmcneil14
Sep 29, 20224 min read
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Day 28 - Week 4 Mindful All the Time
We started out the month by exploring the benefits of mindfulness and lovingkindness by being present in the here and now. Next we...

danmcneil14
Sep 28, 20222 min read
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Day 27 - Dreaming
For about a year now, I've kept a dream journal and I've read a bunch of books on lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is when you are dreaming...

danmcneil14
Sep 27, 20225 min read
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Day 26 - Days of Awe
For the past three days, we looked at practices to help foster mindfulness morning, evening, and night. Let's continue this trend and...

danmcneil14
Sep 26, 20223 min read
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Day 25 - Night
I try to let mindfulness be the bookends of my day. Just as I eased into the day, with a bit of self-care and quiet, I try to calm my...

danmcneil14
Sep 25, 20222 min read
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Day 24 - Evening
When I lived in a monastery, I began and ended each day with prayer. The rhythm of my daily activities echoed the hours of the day. ...

danmcneil14
Sep 24, 20221 min read
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Day 23 - Morning
As we enter the 4th week of practice, the idea is to expand mindfulness from the present moment to all the moments of our day. ...

danmcneil14
Sep 23, 20223 min read
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Day 22 - Fall
Long before we had iPhones and laptops and Alexa, humans relied on the sun and moon, the seasons, and the rhythms of nature to chart the...

danmcneil14
Sep 22, 20222 min read
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Day 21 - Week 3 Connection Summary
In weeks 1 and 2, I introduced the topics of mindfulness and lovingkindness as a means to pay attention to our thoughts in a...

danmcneil14
Sep 21, 20222 min read
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Day 20 - Wild Things
The Peace of Wild Things Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what...

danmcneil14
Sep 20, 20221 min read
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Day 19 - Ocean
It is no secret that I love the water. Maybe because some part of my subconscious remembers the first 9 months of life in my mother's...

danmcneil14
Sep 19, 20222 min read
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Day 18 - Mountains
When I was much younger, I read the Christian classic Hinds' Feet on High Places about the spiritual journey of the main character Much...

danmcneil14
Sep 18, 20222 min read
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Day 17 - The Sun
Yesterday we focused on our connection to the earth, like a tree planted in the ground. Today we look to the sky and focus on our...

danmcneil14
Sep 17, 20221 min read
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Day 16 - Trees
Today I invite you to think about trees. Not only am I going to ask you to ponder the amazing beings we call trees, I am going to ask you...

danmcneil14
Sep 16, 20222 min read
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